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CAIRO — A senior Libyan security official was assassinated outside his home in the eastern city
of Benghazi, officials said yesterday.It’s the latest in a series of mysterious killings that have
raised fears about the country’s precarious postwar security.

The official, Faraj Mohammed al-Drissi, who had held the post of Benghazi’s security director
for only a few weeks, was fatally shot late Tuesday night as he was returning from work, said Wanis
al-Sharif, a local Interior Ministry official.

The killing was the latest blow for Benghazi, which has staggered since armed men attacked U.S.
intelligence and diplomatic buildings in September, killing four Americans in an assault that
upended the city’s fragile power structure.The attack led to a popular revolt against the militias
that have held sway since the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi last year, including hard-line
Islamist groups, criticized for being a law unto themselves.

Government officials loudly promised to assert the state’s control, while privately conceding
that they were outgunned and incapable of fulfilling such a pledge.Militia leaders have rejected
efforts by the government to rein them in, saying they would consider disbanding only if their
leaders were given senior posts in the government.

The assassinations in Benghazi started last year and reflect the city’s factional fights. The
first victims were former Gadhafi officials, usually from feared agencies under the Interior
Ministry. Their bodies were found dumped on the outskirts of the city, bound and shot. The weak
transitional government has never prosecuted anyone for the attacks.

In recent months, the attacks increasingly have targeted symbols of the fledgling state and its
allies, including police officers and members of Benghazi’s diplomatic corps.